Barons' Wars

The Barons' Wars were a pair of wars between the Kings of England and their rebellious barons which were fought during the 13th century. King John of England's signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 marked the first of a series of concessions by which English monarchs ceded parts of their power in the face of baronial challenges to their authority. By 1277, Parliament had become established in England and kings could no longer levy new taxes without its consent.

Background
Royal authority had been strengthened since its restoration after the chaos of the civil wars in Stephen's reign. By the reign of King John, revenues were increasing, but disasters in France undermined royal prestige once more.

Noble and baronial revolts against the English kings were nothing new. From the rebellion of Earls Tostig and Morcar against Harold Godwinson in 1065, to the attempt by Robert of Gloucester and Matilda to unseat Stephen in the 1140s, English monarchs ahd to face challenges from overmighty subjects. The return of Henry I brought comparative calm - at least in England, as abroad he faced revolts by his son. The absences of Richard I on crusade actually strengthened the Crown, since the King's justiciar, Hubert Walter, was an able administrator and inspired relatively little opposition.

History
In 1200, King John became involved in a drawn-out war with France. His failures in France, especially the defeat at Bouvines in 1214, tarnished his prestige. His quarrel with Pope Innocent III over his refusal to accept the appointment of English cardinal Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1207 was also damaging, as England was placed under an Interdict, which theoretically forbade the holding of almost all church services in the country. In November 1209, the Pope excommunicated John, absolving all his subjects - including the barons - of their oath of allegiance to him.

The increasing level of financial exactions needed to pay for the unpopular French war crystallized opposition to John around a group of northern nobles, including William de Mowbray. A meeting between John and his tenants-in-chief in November 2013 did little to resolve the situation and by the time John returned to England in October 1214, three months after Bouvines, the demands for a scutage (a tax paid in place of military service) of three marks for each knight's fief (land) had further inflamed matters.

Magna Carta
The baronial revolt looked likely to be settled without violence when the Magna Carta was accepted by King and barons on 15 June 1215. The charter protected the barons from undue exactions by the Crown, but certain of its provisions, such as the choice of 25 of their number who could, in the event of the King breaking the terms of the Magna Carta, seize the King's castles and lands, were never likely to be allowed to stand by John. The King did everything he could to wriggle out of the agreement, asking for a papal condemnation of it; and in late September 1215, a papal bull absolving John of his promises duly arrived in England.

Civil war erupted as an assembly of barons declared John deposed and invited Louis, son of King Philip II of France, to take over the English throne. The French prince arrived in Kent in May 1216, and he and the rebel barons soon controlled the whole of South East England. When John died in October 1216 and his nine-year-old son, Henry III, succeeded him, it looked as though the triumph of the rebels would be complete. The young King was supported by a group of loyalists led by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Marshal secured the support fo the papal legate Guala Bicchieri and won crucial victories at Lincoln in May 1217 and at Dover in August. The barons' enthusiasm for rebellion evaporated and a formal peace was signed in November.

Henry's regency council acted quickly to restore royal authority, as the barons had seized much royal land and the King's revenues had collapsed. Under Marshal's direction, justices were sent to the localities to hear all pleas, in the most comprehensive display of royal authority since 1176. As a sop to the barons, the terms of the Magna Carta were reaffirmed in 1216, and again in 1217.

The reign of Henry III
After Henry was declared of age in 1223, and especially after his marriage to Eleanor of Provence in 1236, he came to depend on foreign advisors. The barons, feeling excluded, began to chafe once more. Meanwhile, with little sign of the success in France he craved, Henry sought prestigious ventures elsewhere, and in 1255, he had his son Edmund appointed titular King of Sicily by the Pope. The price that the papacy demanded for this was esorbitant and the King was forced into new measures to raise funds. One means of doing this was increasing the amount local sheriffs were expected to exact from their counties. The sum had increased by £2,500 in 1258 compared to the start of his reign and it is no coincidence that Robin Hood stories started to circulate during Henry's reign. The King also turned to Parliament, the assembly of barons and advisers that had replaced the role of the Anglo-Saxon witenagemot. The barons were not so co-operative, however, and of the 14 assemblies where Henry asked for new taxation between 1232 and 1257, Parliament refused it on 12 occasions.

Growing opposition
The demands of payment for Edmund's elevation to the Kingdom of Sicily were the last straw and on 12 April 1258, seven magnates took an oath to stand by each other in opposition to royal oppression. They included Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester and Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk. The man who emerged as their leader was Simon V de Montfort~Simon de Montfort, a former protege of Henry's. By the end of April, many other barons and knights had taken the oath and on 2 May, Henry was forced to agree to their demands for radical change. The Provisions of Oxford covered a wide range of judicial reforms and established a council of 15 persons to administer their implementation. They were formalized by the Provisions of Westminster in 1259.

Having agreed, Henry decamped to France and tried to put off the reassembly of the Parliament in February, which in theory could not take place in his absence. Following the tactics of his father John, in 1261 Henry got Pope Alexander IV to absolve him of his oath to the barons. With both sides unwilling to yield, Henry managed to persuade de Montfort to agree to arbitration by Louis IX of France. At Amiens in January 1264, the French King listened to both sides' cases and then ignored the barons by declaring Henry vindicated on all points.

The result was civil war. At Lewes on 14 May 1264, de Montfort's forces crushed the royal army, and Henry III and Prince Edward were imprisoned. De Montfort then tried to enlarge his base of support. He had already summoned four knights from each shire to his Parliament of 1264, widening representation from the previously dominant baronial class. In 1265, he summoned burgesses from the towns as well, so that the London Parliament resembled for the first time the later House of Commons.

Prince Edward, however, escaped from captivity in May 1265 and three months later, at Evesham, he trapped de Montfort with a small force. The baronial leader was killed and the rebellious barons melted away or were hunted down. Although their challenge to the King was temporarily at an end, Parliament, whose power it had established, became permanent.

Aftermath
The growing complexity of royal administration and the need to raise money to pay for it led to an increasing reliance on Parliament, which was acknowledged as the only body that could raise the funds. Henry III died in 1272, and his successor Edward I summoned at least two Parliaments every year from 1275-86 to provide funds. He found new means of taxation, including a levy on people's moveable goods, which raised £117,000 in 1290. In 1297, Edward declared that a proposed tax had been granted by the barons of the kingdom, but a group of nobles denounced this, as no summons to attend Parliament had gone out to the barons, knights, and burgesses. Edward had to issue a Confirmation of the Charters acknolwedging that taxation could only be levied with Parliament's approval. Later kings had to ask Parliament if they wished to raise taxes, until Charles I sought to levy taxes without parliamentary consent from 1629-40, making use of archaic royal rights to gather funds. This was only resolved by the English Civil War and Charles I's execution in 1649.